Re: HetaOni
by Miz Doom
Summary: Antarctica travels to England to hunt down a haunted house she overheard rumors of, but tells China where she's going first...at least, right when she's about to go inside. Three days later, she's still gone... Some ChinaxOC, EnglandxOC, and a fem!Egypt.
1. Loop 1  Part 1

**Re: HetaOni**

Loop 1 - Part 1

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Disclaimers and notes:

I don't own Hetalia, obviously, or the original HetaOni. This was just inspired by it.

This was taken from an MSN roleplay with my friend (Fem!Egypt) and I, and I incorporated HetaOni into it for the thrills...then got the idea to write it out as we go along (and before we get to some parts, so she knows where I want the story to go.) I don't actually _expect_ many readers...after all, its not yaoi and I'm pairing OCs with canons, so I honestly expect fangirl hate. But I don't really care; its my story, I'm not putting it up for anyone but me and my RP buddy. 8D So yeah, don't bother yelling at me for the content, I won't pay attention. At all.

* * *

"A haunted house? Here?"

"That's what I heard. Why, are you interested, occult nerd?"

"D-Don't say it like that!"

England huffed, folding his arms at the smirking albino in front of him. It was his acquaintance, Antarctica, though everyone knew her as Arc. Though, he had only recently found out that he should have been calling Arc 'her' this whole time… But Arc hadn't cared either way, luckily, and her potential temper was controlled towards the bushy-browed man.

A contributing factor might have been the girl holding onto his arm, an apparent friend of the icy nation, Egypt herself. "Hey, don't pick on my Iggy!" she pouted at her albino friend, who sighed, folding her arms.

"Sheesh. It was a joke. Don't you people have a sense of humor anymore?" Arc shook her head, and then unfolded her arms to give them a wave.

"Well. I'm not going to hang around and bother you two anymore; I have a haunted house to hunt down.

England and Egypt both turned their heads to look back at her, England shrugging despite being interested in the supposed haunted house, and starting to lead Egypt off in the other direction.

_It will be a little lonely with nobody coming with me… But I spent thousands of years alone, why am I worried about a short time in this place alone?_ Arc wondered to herself. _…Probably because I'm used to being with people now…_ she sighed, audibly as she walked down a deserted street. The farther she went down it, the more eerie of a feeling she was getting.

"…I must be getting close. I'm getting a creepy feeling," the albino muttered to herself, red eyes ever alert and scanning her surroundings. _Now I wish I had that Shinatty-chan plush that China gave me… _she couldn't help but think with a light blush. It was embarrassing to admit to herself, but she'd become…weaker since she started getting close to people, and she hated it.

_This may be just what I need to toughen back up._

Arc came to a dead halt when she found herself in front of a Victorian-style mansion, looking as if it would be in a horror movie. It nearly screamed "stay out", but of course the girl was going to go inside. Before she started up towards the door, however, a thought entered her mind.

_Those rumors about people never coming out when they go in… I don't want to be forgotten… Maybe—maybe I should tell someone I'm going in here._ She considered who she could tell, immediately ruling England out since he would make fun of her. She was having complications with Japan. Belarus…probably wouldn't notice if she did send a message. Russia would probably try and come after her, since it was haunted…and he apparently liked scary things. Canada would worry too much too; Arc was one of the few that actually noticed him. Senkaku would go whine to Japan and/or China about being worried, knowing her. Korea…just no. Then came the most obvious choice…China. In fact, China had been the first one she'd talked to about the place, but she'd never actually told him that she was going there. She knew his superstitious nature; if he knew she was actually going _inside…_ He would try everything to stop her. All the more reason to tell him just before she went in; then it would be too late for him to make her go back.

Arc pulled out her phone, opening a blank message, setting China as recipient, then typing in her message.

"I found that haunted house I told you about. I'm going inside, don't try and tell me not to. But…if anything weird happens and I don't come back…don't forget about me, please."

Click, send. She pocketed the phone, and walked boldly up to the door, yanking it open; after all, nobody lived there except the supposed source of the haunting.

The first thing she noticed, as she walked through the lobby-like room into a den, was how…oddly clean it was. It had the eerily empty feel, but there wasn't a speck of dust, it seemed. Arc was already feeling uneasy. _Come on, just a little longer. At least check out a couple floors._

Convincing herself, she proceeded with a deep breath. Normally not shaken by anything except near-death scenarios, it was most likely the fact that this place bordered on the supernatural that affected Arc so badly. Though, luckily, nothing odd had happened…yet. No sound except her footsteps and slight creaking of the boards under her feet could be heard…

At least until a barely audible crash back towards the den startled Arc. _What…was…?_

Whirling around on her heel, she walked back in the direction of the den, on her toes to keep as quiet as possible. Pressing her back to the wall to the left of the door, she leaned her head slowly…carefully to peek into the den…

And saw nothing there. With a sigh, she relaxed a little and walked into the den, only to hear something crack under her feet. Pulling her feet back almost immediately, she saw what looked like the remains of a broken mug under her feet.

"Woah…gotta watch that." She took a step back, then leaned down to inspect further. _Wait a second… There weren't any mugs around here. …Even if there were…what would have knocked it_—

Then came a footstep, behind her…in the doorway. Her eyes widening more than she thought possible, she stood quickly and whirled around, blindly grabbing for the hilt of her knife...

She wasn't even able to scream.


	2. Loop 1  Part 2

**HetaOni**

Loop 1 - Part 2

* * *

Yeah...if anyone except Keket's reading this, I'll be surprised, like I said. xD I don't wanna hear hate, as I said before too. My roleplay/story, my rules (minus the guidelines of FF, but you know...)

I don't own Hetalia, its characters, or HetaOni. (Or AoOni come to think of it.)

* * *

Three days later, England and Egypt, the latter of which stayed the past few days at England's, were awakened in the morning to England's phone going off at a high volume.

"Ughh…who the bloody…" he mumbled to himself as he grabbed sleepily for his phone, answering. "What is it?"

China's voice, speaking even faster than usual, echoed over the phone speaker, so much that England had to hold the phone away from his ear.

"Opium, ahen! Antarctica ran off to your country talking about some haunted house, ahen! She said something about it before, but she hadn't said anything about going, ahen, but I got a message from her saying she found it and she was going inside, but if I had known she was going in there I wouldn't have let her, ahen—but that was three days ago and her phone isn't receiving messages or calls! And since she's in your country I was hoping you-"

"CHINA! CALM DOWN. Ugh…it's too early in the morning for this… Now _slow down_ and try saying that again so I can actually _understand_ you." England sat up in his bed, rubbing his eyes. The fact that there was a time difference wasn't helping the early morning situation at all; it was daylight in China.

"O-okay…ahen…" China took a deep breath, audible even over the phone, and tried to speak more calmly, but it was obvious he was panicked, "A-Antarctica went over to your country…going to find some haunted house, ahen."

"Ah, right. I saw her a few days ago." England confirmed, and China's voice seemed to perk up.

"Really? …Well, ahen, sh-she sent me a message three days ago that she had found it, and was going inside… But since then, her phone hasn't been able to receive messages or calls, ahen. I've been trying…ahen…"

England couldn't help but feel bad for the guy. He knew what it was like to not be able to contact someone you care about; Egypt had disappeared before, leaving him worried sick. "Really… Well, I haven't seen her since the day she mentioned the haunted house. I'm sorry."

China let out a heavy sigh. "Really, ahen… Alright. I'm sorry to wake you, ahen. I guess I just got my hopes up."

England bit his lip, hanging his head a little. "…W-well. Maybe Egypt and I can go check out that haunted house."

England could hear the sudden reassured tone in China's voice. "Really, ahen! Thank you, Opium! Hey, maybe I should come over and go with you, ahen. That way we can back each other up, ahen!"

Why did that seem so familiar, England wondered… "Sure! After all, it's your girlfriend that's missing."

"G-g-girlfriend, ahen…? Sh-she's not my-"

"Ohh. So you're still at that stage, China? No worries, you'll be able to call her that soon enough." England chuckled. It was only fairly recently that he came to terms calling Egypt his girlfriend.

"No, I mean she's _really_ not, ahen! We've never even discussed anything like that…ahen." China sounded embarrassed, England could hear it.

"Huh. Really, I would have thought it was official already. Come on, it's taking you longer than it even took me and Egypt!" England teased his ally, getting up out of bed. "Anyway. Get over here as soon as possible, and I'll see if Egypt is up to checking that creepy house out."

"A-alright, ahen." China seemed to be trying to compose himself, making England smirk a little more. It was funny to hear China, normally so composed, get that worked up over a simple word.

"See you later." England hung up his phone with that, looking at the clock. 3 am. Wasn't that familiar…was that China's revenge for the day he'd woke him up at the same time and China first met Arc? Then again, why would he want revenge for that, anyway?

It didn't take very long, it seemed, for England and Egypt to get together with China and make their way to the house. Even though Egypt hadn't relished waking up so early, after a minor tantrum, she went along with it.

"…Is this it, ahen?" China asked with a shudder as they stood in front of the large mansion. England nodded, sure it was it by the odd feeling he was getting.

"…I have a feeling it is going to affect our magic, Iggy…" Egypt pointed out, obviously feeling the same foreboding that England had. England nodded, but knew they had to go anyway.

"Let's just hope we have enough combined to fight whatever is dwindling over this place away…" England sighed, and then waved for them to follow as he walked up towards the door. Egypt grabbed his arm, holding onto it for reassurance.

China swallowed hard as they opened the door, and walked inside, immediately getting a chill once he stepped into the first room. _I really...don't like this place…_

"…Urgh. I just felt most of my power pushed down. How's yours, Egypt?" England's voice sounded strained for a moment as they stopped.

"Mine's been suppressed too…I guess we'll have to make do with what we have, right?" Egypt sighed, walking ahead of the two into the den. As the two followed, Egypt noticed the odd lack of dust. "It's like it was just cleaned…how odd."

"Huh…? Wow, it does aru… Maybe someone does live here after all, aru?" China considered.

"Impossible. It's definitely some supernatural force here keeping it in top shape… After all, it suppressed our powers, and not much is capable of doing that." England pointed out.

Egypt nodded, agreeing with England, and walking by a coffee table as she looked around, unaware of her skirt brushing a mug that was sitting on the table, and all three of them jumped as it fell to the hardwood floor under it and smashed.

"Woah! …E-Egypt, be a little more careful!" England tried to catch his breath, eyes wide.

"…Sorry." Egypt caught her breath too, and then looked through the door opposite the hallway. "…Let's try in there, before whatever odd presence is in here finds us because of that noise."

England and China nodded, following Egypt through the door into the next room. While England and China set to exploring this new room, which turned out to be the dining room, Egypt stayed by the door, leaning her ear against it to listen in.

"…Do you hear anything, aru?" China finally whispered, having noticed what Egypt was doing.

Egypt shook her head a little with a sigh. "I…thought I heard footsteps, but then nothing."

"How peculiar… There's something in this room that's off, as well, but I can't put my finger on it." England started inspecting a china cabinet, as if something important would be inside, while China pulled out a chair and looked under the table.

"Hmm? What's this, aru?"

Egypt and England both looked over from where they stood, to where China was. "What'd you find?" England walked over as China stood up from under the table, holding something in his hand.

"It's…" China pressed the button on the top of the small, round object as it opened up, revealing a pocket watch, "…a watch?"

"…It's moving weird. Why is it spinning so fast like that?" Egypt asked.

"I don't know…" England blinked, looking it over.

"Ugh, that ticking is maddening, aru! I can't stand it much longer, aru!" China threw the watch down, breaking the face of it and stopping the ticking.

"…S-sorry, aru… I just couldn't handle that crazy ticking-" China's voice stopped dead as his eyes seemed to haze over, and his expression went totally blank…as if in a trance.

"…China? …China? Snap out of it!"


	3. Loop 1 Part 3

**HetaOni**

Loop 1 - Part 3

* * *

Short chapter is short...but whatever. You know the drill. Also, time for the mind screwing if you dunno what HetaOni is. 8D

_What…is this, aru?_

He was watching a scene unfold, but unable to move or do anything to stop it. He was with England, Egypt, and…Arc! There she was! But…he couldn't move towards her!

Then his head turned without his will making him, looking straight towards-…what in the name of the Shinatty-chan was that? It was…some grotesque, _creature_ standing menacingly in front of them. Its eyes were wrapped up by some kind of off-white cloth, and its mouth was stitched up. It was almost human in shape, had nearly luminous white skin, what looked to be the torn remains of a large jacket over its torso and abdomen, but its scrawny legs and arms fully visible, along with the most shocking feature…its fingers were replaced by what looked to be _knife blades._

While China recovered from shock, he heard a voice—England's—calling out "Watch out, China, its coming after you!"

His eyes re-focused on the monster again, seeing that he was right; the monster was coming right for him, blade-like fingers aimed at him…and he was frozen in fear, unable to move.

"…China!"

In what seemed to be a visible flash, Arc was suddenly running between the monster and China, jumping up and stabbing it right between where its covered eyes should be with her hunting knife. However…because of getting so close, she was in the perfect position to be completely speared through by the long, bladed fingers of the monster. With a high pitched screech, it seemed to fizzle off into dust, while Arc dropped her knife and crumbled to the ground, coughing blood from her mouth.

"A-Arc…no…aru!"

* * *

"CHINA! WAKE UP ALREADY!"

China blinked, shaking his head. "A-Arc? …Oh…Opium. Wh-what are you screaming about, ahen?"

England blinked, as if surprised he finally answered. "It's about bloody time! You were in a daze for at least 10 bloody minutes!"

"…D-Daze, aru?" China blinked rapidly, trying to figure out what had just happened. _Either I had a vision…or…something in this mansion put the image into my head…aru._

"Yes, a daze. You wouldn't respond, but your heart rate did increase greatly shortly before we snapped you out of it. What was wrong?" Egypt questioned, holding her arms behind her back.

"…N-Nothing, aru. I guess the house just messed with my mind a little, aru." China laughed nervously, deciding it was better not to tell the two what he had seen. _If…if that was a vision of the future…then, what can I do…to stop that from happening?_

"Hm. If you say so, China." England shrugged, then looked back to the door they came into the dining room from.

"…Let's check out the room again. See if anything happened." England led the other two over towards the door, motioning for them to stay behind him, and cracked open the door.

"…Well?" Egypt asked after a moment.

"…Y-…you two had…better see this." England stuttered out, stepping into the room and letting China and Egypt in.

The room was completely different than it had been mere minutes ago; the only thing completely unchanged being the shattered mug on the floor. The coffee table had been flipped on its side and what looked like multiple knives had been stuck through it, and then pulled back out, like the table became a makeshift shield. The sofa had been shredded in multiple places, the rug had been torn and was halfway flipped over, and there were…blood spatters all over the room. And a couple of odd pitch-black spatters…

China's heart sank as he looked over the state of the room, fearing the worst. Egypt closed the door behind them, revealing scratch marks…not looking like the knife marks, but like _human nail_ scratches, on the back of the door. She didn't call attention to it, seeing the state China was already in.

"China…let's get out of this room. I-I'm sure she's alright, so stop worrying yourself." England reassuringly placed a hand on the elder nation's shoulder.

China let out an exasperated sigh. "Alright, ahen…Let's hope she is…"


	4. Loop 1 Part 4

**HetaOni**

Loop 1 - Part 4

* * *

The three had taken the risky path of splitting up, China saying he wanted to do some searching on his own, and England saying he and Egypt would go up to the next floor. The dark-haired man headed to the back of the hallway, into a study on the right, and continued his search. He started with the bookshelf, immediately hearing a muffled noise coming from an unusually large book. He slid the book out of its spot, having to hold it with both hands, and carried it over to the desk.

Setting it down with a slight huff, he opened it to reveal half of the pages cut out in a square, and a clock of all things hidden inside it. However, this, just like the former clock, was spinning out of control, this time back, then forward spinning. Not completely sure why, he felt a strong urge to break it, especially as it got increasingly louder. Eventually giving in, he slammed the clock against the corner of the desk, sighing in relief when the ticking noise ceased. Though again, just like the first clock, he suddenly blanked out.

_He was looking through another's eyes again, it seemed; he could see the surroundings fly by in a blur as whoever he was seeing through fell to his knees, staring down at the floor in apparent shock. As he just stayed there for a moment, a frightening red liquid suddenly flowed into view, slowly, and apparently snapping him out of his shocked state as he quickly got up, stumbling backwards to reveal to his eyes the bloody body of none other than England, who obviously wasn't getting up anytime soon…_

_He turned away swiftly, running away from them and up to the wall, resting a hand on it to catch his breath, then turning away from it and sliding down it. Now he could get a fuller view of the room, even though he wished he hadn't. Just a short distance from England was Egypt's corpse, one hand reached out towards the blonde man's body. The room itself was in ruins, like a long and epic fight had taken place there. England's spell book and Egypt's book of the dead were nearby the respective owner's body, England's open as if his life had ended mid-spell. He looked away from the carnage, only to catch sight of a broken mirror, and China was horrified to see his own reflection in it, albeit bruised and bloodied, but luckily not in a fatal state. He watched as he pushed himself up, ignoring any inevitable pain, and stumbled once over to the door of the room farthest from the bodies. China could hear his own strained voice in his head as he spoke._

"_She said…if anything happens…go back… But how…?"_

_

* * *

_China came back to reality with a gasp, eyes wide as he looked around. Everything seemed to be normal… he didn't feel like he was in pain, either. _Why do I keep seeing these strange things?_ He couldn't help but wonder to himself, so lost in thought that he didn't even hear the closet door behind him creak open slightly. Before he could even react to it, however, a hand flew out of the closet, grabbing China by his ponytail and pulling him inside before closing the door quickly, and muffling his protesting yells.

* * *

"Hm? Did you hear that?"

Egypt looked up from the piano keys to England curiously, blinking her wide gold-hued eyes. "Hear what?"

"…You didn't hear a thud coming from downstairs? …I must be hearing things." The blonde man sighed, shaking his head and looking back down to the large book full of sheet music. The room they had started in seemed to be used primarily for music; holding a piano, cello, a cabinet with a glass door with a variety of flutes and clarinets, and a tall bookshelf full of scores and sheet music books. Seeing as there was a sofa and a couple other chairs in the room, they assumed that whoever once lived here gave performances for friends or something of the sort.

"It could just be China, if anything. Maybe he dropped something." Egypt dismissed the notion of anything bad happening, despite the other odd occurrences in the mansion.

"Possibly-" England cut himself off as he looked down at his watch, knowing something was wrong immediately, "…Egypt? What time does your watch say?"

The tan woman looked up from the piano once more, then down to the watch on her arm and seemed to notice the same thing, "…What? 10:56? …But, wasn't it around noon that we came in here?"

England nodded, "And what's odder is that mine says 6:39. …I'm starting to wonder if those clocks we've found have been like that for a reason, now."

"Maybe there's a magic spell on the clocks that cause them to alter the timeline in the house? …It would explain why the state of the den changed so quickly when a fight that gruesome would take much longer than we gave it." Egypt considered, standing from the piano bench.

"You might just be right about that. It seemed that after we broke the clock in the dining room that the timeline in that and the den reverted…possibly to normal?" England set the music book down on a chair and started looking around, this time for another clock. Egypt joined his search, and after examining the shelves of the bookshelf she could reach, returned to the piano, this time opening the lid.

"…I knew there was something distorting the sound of the keys…" she mumbled as she pulled a clock from the inside of the piano.

"Ah, good. Now, be careful, but try breaking it; I'll be more aware in case I can feel a disturbance." England nodded to her, standing nearby as she threw the clock onto the ground, then when it didn't break from just that, stepped on it to finish the job.

This time, with England being more aware of the feeling of the air, he felt the change once the clock was broken, and looked down to his watch. "That's much better, hm? 1:57."

Egypt checked her watch too, nodding. "Yes, I have the same time now. …It's fascinating that a spell like that could alter individual watches' times…"

"I agree. But that's not our main concern here, I think; we need to find what's putting the spell on everything, I'd think." England pointed out. Egypt nodded, agreeing with him.

"Though, I'd be content with finding Arc and getting out of here…"


	5. Loop 1 Part 5

**Author's Note:**

Wow, I nearly forgot about this... Well, thing is, I started roleplaying the same basic storyline with another friend of mine and its much more canon. I think I might rewrite this on those lines, so its not so...OOC at times, I guess? Plus, since I started this, I actually learned alot more about Hetalia and its characters, so I'll be able to do better this time around. ^^ Since it appears I have people reading (and thank you for doing so, I admit it was unexpected!) keep on the lookout for the revised, better version of Re:HetaOni! :D

* * *

**HetaOni**

Loop 1 - Part 5

"Jeez. You finally shut up, and you're blacked out." Two pale hands rested China's dazed body against the wall of the closet, and then the familiar figure sat across from the boy with minor difficulty. Quite battered and with slowly healing cuts scattered over her body, Arc sighed as she stared out the dark-haired man in front of her. She had pulled him into the closet since she heard someone else coming, and was shocked enough to see the Chinese man there, much less in the path of that monster. So, having pulled him in for his own safety, she had struggled to quiet him down, only to have him all of a sudden fall into this dazed state.

"N-no, stop-!" China apparently snapped out of it, as his sudden yell caused Arc to shoot up from her sitting position to kneeling over him, covering his mouth yet again with her hand.

Giving a sharp shushing hiss, she looked to the door of the closet as she listened for any out of place noises. Luckily, this time China actually listened to her…for a moment.

"A-Arc? You're alright, aru?" he spoke through her hand, though it only resulted in another shush from Arc. Finally, after a moment of listening in silence, she released him and let herself flop back against the wall across from China, trying to ignore the pain all over her.

"…Yeah, I'm alright. What I wanna know is what _you're_ doing here." She spoke coldly; the last thing she wanted was China being there too. As if fighting that Thing wasn't enough, now she had to watch out for China…she refused to let anything happen to him while she was still around.

"W-we came here to find you, aru! I got worried since your phone rejected calls and messages, aru…" his voice trailed off as he looked away, picking up on Arc's cold tone in her voice.

Arc looked up again, eyes even wider, though neither of them could see in the pitch blackness. "_We?_ You brought more people? Who else is here?"

China could hear the anger in her voice and leaned more away from her and against the wall. He couldn't help but wonder why she was getting mad over something like that, but answered anyway, "England and Egypt offered to come help me find you, aru…"

That only caused an aggravated groan from the albino as she shifted enough to bury her head in her hands. She fell silent for a minute or so before she spoke once more. "…You shouldn't have come…"

Even though her voice was muffled, China heard what she said and looked back to her, starting to become just as defiant as she was.

"Hold on, aru! We're concerned about you so we came to help you, aru! How can you say we just shouldn't have come, aru?"

"Because it's way too dangerous for you to be here!" Arc snapped back, raising her head, "I can handle it on my own, but I wouldn't be able to stand it if anything happened to you!"

"Well, do you think I'd be able to stand it if anything happened to you, aru?"

Arc paused for a moment before sighing, putting her head back in her hands. "…You just… You haven't seen what I've seen…"

"I wouldn't say that, aru…" China sighed, pulling his knees up to his chest, remembering the most recent of his "visions" as he'd taken to calling them. This one however, baffled him, as he had started to wonder if it was the clocks that had been causing them, but he hadn't broken a clock that time…

* * *

_He was standing outside the mansion this time, but nobody was with him. He took out his phone, looked at it for a moment, and then with a deep breath, went inside, not stopping for a second once he got inside the door. He took an immediate left turn into the den, to see it in a similar state to how it had been, only with the addition of a couple things. For one, Arc was inside, fighting that monster in his previous 'vision' face to face. He was frozen for a moment, as the monster slashed at her, barely grazing the albino's side, and she, holding a knife, stuck it straight between its covered eyes. It let out a shrill screech, then backed up before seeming to collapse into black dust._

"_Ugh…"Arc groaned, walking over to retrieve her knife, then looking up towards him. _

"_Ch-China! What…are you doing here?" the shocked albino spoke, seeming surprised enough to drop her knife._

"_I-I came looking for you when you said you were coming here alone, aru! What…what was that thing?" he exclaimed, walking over to where the pile of dust was._

"_...I don't know. But I know we have to get out of here." Arc sighed, walking past him and towards the doorway he came from, to the front door. Meanwhile, China had knelt beside the odd black dust, hesitantly reaching out, and then picking up a little between his fingertips, examining it. _

_After a moment, a very agitated Arc walked back into the room. "The front door's locked. You didn't lock it after you came in, did you?"_

_He looked away from the dust, shaking his head at Arc. "No, I didn't, aru..." He stated, moving to stand up, but stopped as a shadow appeared behind unaware Arc. "A—ARC! Look out!" he yelled, the albino whirling around before a flash of light ended the vision._

_

* * *

_

"…What do you mean?" Arc spoke up, raising an eyebrow. "You haven't seen the monster, have you?"

China snapped out of his daze when Arc spoke, and shook his head before realizing neither of them could see. "Not in person, aru. But…since we came in here, I've been…seeing these strange visions of things that haven't happened, aru… I think I saw it in one of those."

"Oh." Arc sighed, going quiet for a moment, as if listening, then spoke up again, "What kind of visions?"

"…Well, there was one where I came to this mansion alone…not with England and Egypt, aru. And I found you fighting that…thing, aru." China explained, not wanting to explain the first or second of those visions; both of them involved Arc dying by the hands of that monster.

"Hm…well that obviously didn't happen. …Weird." Arc mumbled, standing up and walking to the closet door again, opening it just a crack to peek out. China squinted at the sudden light, looking over towards her and just barely able to see a large gash in her side.

"Arc, y-you're hurt, aru!" He stood quickly, eyes widening despite the pain from the bright light in them, and took the couple of steps between them quickly to stand by her, grabbing her arm.

"S-stop it, alright! I'll take care of that later." Arc jerked her arm from China's hand, closing the door back so he couldn't see, "We have bigger problems to worry about, like getting to England and Egypt."

China bit his lip, not wanting to let an injury like that go untended, but also knowing the way Arc was, it wouldn't matter if he insisted or not; she was too hardheaded to let him help until she found England and Egypt.

"Fine, aru. We're not going to find them hiding in this closet, though, aru!" China pointed out, folding his arms.

"…I know. I just…don't want to run into the monster unprepared." Arc sighed, gripping the doorknob. They were both quiet for a moment, then China spoke up again.

"Well, we won't go unprepared then, will we, aru?" He reached past her to grab the doorknob, making Arc pull her hand back in surprise, and pushed it open, revealing the empty room. Both of them had to squint before their eyes adjusted to the light.

"…Fine." Arc stepped into the room, looking around the room as she walked farther into it, and then spotted the curtain rod, pointed at both ends. She tried to stretch and reach it, but to no avail; she was too short. And China was relatively her height, so that didn't help.

"Hm…ah, here, aru." China noticed her predicament, and grabbed a chair, pushing it up beside the window for her to stand on.

Arc nodded a thank you, then stepped up onto the chair while China held it still, grabbing the curtain rod and sliding the pure white curtains off of it easily, handing the rod down to China before jumping down from the chair.

"Hm…I might as well…" Arc mumbled to herself, walking over to the desk and using the edge of it to tear a long strip of the white fabric from the curtains, then pulling up the torn remains of the lower right side of her shirt to wrap it around herself, as a makeshift bandage.

"Good, that should help until we can properly care for that, aru." China smiled to the albino, who shrugged in response.

"Will the rod work if we need to defend ourselves?" she then questioned, taking the gold-colored rod when the Asian man held it out to her.

"I think so, aru. If you can attack with something that heavy, aru…" China observed, realizing that it would need a good deal of strength to do real damage.

"Hm…it'll do for now." Arc sighed, looking over the metal makeshift weapon, then back up to China.

"What about you?"

China paused, he hadn't stopped to think what he would use. "Hm…" he looked towards the closet they had both been inside a moment ago, and opened the door wide so the light from the room flooded the inside. "…here we go, aru!"

Smiling, China stepped inside the closet as Arc spun the curtain rod around in her hand, then held it behind her back. The Chinese man stepped back out holding a cooking pan.

"…Something tells me I should have expected that from you." Arc shook her head, a slight smirk coming to her face. China couldn't help but laugh at her reaction, and nod.

"Of course, aru. Now, let's go find our friends, aru!" he spoke with determination, starting to lead the albino girl out of the room.


End file.
